Exploratory spatial analysis of crimes against property in Turkey

Turkey, a rapidly developing country, is a junction point between Asia and Europe in terms of its social and economic structure. Turkey is both the most advanced economy in the Turkish-speaking world and the largest economy in the Muslim world. In the last few years, with the development of Turkey’s economic and social structure, the level of criminality in the country has attracted attention. Consequently, we aimed to explore potential spatial associations of crimes against property rates across the 81 provinces of Turkey (NUTS3) from 1997 to 2009. Geographical information systems and explorative methods of spatial data analysis were employed in the analyses of crime rates. Since crime is a phenomenon that arises from the interaction between social, economic, psychological circumstances and, especially, geographical factors, this study attempts to rectify the possible deficiencies of traditional statistical analyses of geography. Because of the very different population sizes in each province, comparing the volume of crimes makes a major impact on the stability of the crime rates; therefore in this study an empirical Bayes smoothing method was used to interpret the crime rates correctly. Global spatial autocorrelation indices were used to test the spatial dependence of the distribution of the crime rates. Besides the excess risk rates, local spatial autocorrelation methods were used to detect and interpret the clustering of crime rates. In order to model the crime rates, a set of socioeconomic parameters (migration rates by province, gross national product according to purchasing power parity by province, registered number of touristic facilities and number of rooms by province, electricity consumption statistics, provincial unemployment rates and urbanisation index values were handled with geographically weighted regression. According to the results, criminal activities were non-random in terms of time and space. Property crime, except for smuggling, is densely clustered in the west and south-west of Turkey. The present study demonstrates the utility of spatial analysis and geographically weighted regression to detect some important geographical dimensions and crucial geographical aspects of property crimes in Turkey.     

Self‐Embedding Behavior in Adults: A Report of Two Cases and a Systematic Review

Self‐embedding behavior (SEB) is the repeated insertion of sharp objects, such as needles or pins, into the soft tissues of abdomen, limbs, and other body parts. In this study, two cases of SEB were reported and the scientific worldwide literature reviewed. Thirty‐two cases of SEB were identified through systematic searches in the main bibliographic databases. Mean age was 35 years (SD = 8.97). Just over two‐thirds of the patients were female. Although the number of embedded objects could be as high as 200, major clinical and surgical complications were uncommon and mortality was null. Patients with SEB presented three major diagnoses: psychotic (25%), personality (21.9%), and factitious (28.1%) disorders. The practice of SEB largely went undetected as the patients themselves did not bring it to the attention of family members or physicians and usually denied they have engaged in SEB. A high level of suspicion is required to avoid a missed diagnosis.     

副鸡嗜血杆菌基因文库的构建与筛选

为了筛选副鸡嗜血杆菌的体内表达基因,提取了副鸡嗜血杆菌的全基因组,构建了副鸡嗜血杆菌基因组的pET系统表达文库。运用PCR及核酸内切酶(SalⅠ+NdeⅠ)鉴定基因文库,并以病原菌吸附后的康复血清作为探针,采用菌落原位杂交的方法对基因文库进行筛选。结果显示,重组质粒中有0.5～2kb的片段插入,99%的基因包含在基因文库中;重复筛选后得到的阳性克隆再经过PCR与SalⅠ+NdeⅠ酶切鉴定后定向测序,并对测序结果在NCBI上进行分析后发现筛选获得的基因中,有1个表达为转运谷氨酰还原酶、1个表达为转录终止因子,1个表达为荚膜合成域2,还有2个表达为保守假想蛋白。结果表明,本研究应用体内诱导抗原技术(IVIAT)筛选到了一些副鸡嗜血杆菌体内诱导表达基因,并对基因的功能做了初步探讨,在找寻副鸡嗜血杆菌在体内生存以及致病关键基因的道路上前进了一步,为传染性鼻炎的预防和治疗积累了有价值的资料。     

旋毛虫ES抗原对小鼠巨噬细胞TLR2/4mRNA表达的影响

为探讨旋毛虫ES抗原对RAW264.7细胞TLR2/4mRNA表达的影响,分别取经0、2、5、15、30、45μg/mL ES抗原作用24h的RAW264.7细胞和用15μg/mL ES抗原作用0、3、6、12、18、24h后的RAW264.7细胞,采用半定量PCR方法检测TLR2和TLR4mRNA的表达水平变化。结果显示,随着ES抗原浓度的升高,TLR2/4mRNA的表达量逐渐上升,15μg/mL ES抗原组与空白对照组相比差异显著(P<0.05)。在15μg/mL ES抗原作用24h内,随着作用时间的延长,TLR2/4mRNA的表达量逐渐上升,作用18h后的表达水平升高,且与空白对照组差异显著(P<0.05)。证实,ES抗原可刺激RAW264.7细胞表面受体TLR2/4表达升高,且存在一定的剂量和时间效应。     

Estimating intersectoral technology spillovers for Brazil

This paper aims to evaluate the main intersectoral R&D flows in the Brazilian economy, determining their direction and magnitude. Unlike other studies that focus exclusively on rent spillovers flows of R&D, this paper also calculates spillovers with total spending on innovation in addition to R&D expenditure. In the case of developing countries, where R&D is of lower relative importance, we assume that technological effort is measured more accurately if it is considered as different types of innovative expenditure. We used data from the Technological Innovation Survey, conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics with the support of Ministry of Science and Technology and data from an input–output matrix for the Brazilian economy, calibrated by Laboratório de Analises Territoriais e Setoriais—LATES of the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. The analysis is from the year 2011 and covers 32 sectors of economic activity resulting from the compatibility of the two databases. The main results show a mapping of the intersectoral flow of knowledge embodied both by the total expenditure on innovation and by in-house R&D to Brazil for the year 2011. It is important to highlight the wealth of detail of such a mapping, as it characterizes not only by sectoral interdependence of these aspects, but it also shows the direction of flows, the sectoral hierarchy in terms of “donation” of technical knowledge and the intersectoral flows in terms of technological intensity.     

Belgian regional parliaments and the European Union: an analysis of parliamentary scrutiny in agricultural and environmental policies

ABSTRACT

Drawing on qualitative case studies of two specific European decision-making processes in the agricultural and environmental sectors, this paper discusses how and why Belgian regional parliaments activated (or not) their control mechanisms to scrutinise their respective regional ministers. The findings show that parliamentary scrutiny of the agricultural and environmental policy fields has undergone a process of institutional and behavioural Europeanisation. Belgian regional parliaments rely mostly on classical parliamentary tools aimed at gathering information and, to a lesser extent, on constraining instruments aimed at influencing their government. Rather than trying to influence the EU negotiations, the MPs try to assess the potential impact of the reforms on their regional policy sectors. The findings also demonstrate that domestic media coverage and political salience of the EU negotiation associated with important implementing powers of regional parliaments have a positive effect on the level of scrutiny conducted by Belgian regional assemblies.     

Role of family factors in adolescent delinquency in an Elazig/Turkey reformatory

Family is one of the most important factors in the social and psychological progress of an adolescent. Social behavior disorders in childhood have been reported to be caused by many factors that may lead children to commit a crime. Our study included a total of 106 convicted adolescents from Eastern Turkey in a reformatory and 126 unconvicted adolescents with a similar socio-economic status. A survey form was completed during a face-to-face interview and a review of official records was undertaken. The role of family disruption, education levels of parents, the rate of imprisonment among first- and second-degree relatives, migration as a family from their place of birth, and the number of delinquent children in the family were evaluated. There was a significant difference between the conditions in the families of convicted and unconvicted adolescents. Family factors play an important role in the development of adolescent delinquency. To prevent or decrease this rate of childhood or adolescent delinquency, there needs to be an improvement in the socio-cultural conditions of families.     

Importance of electromyography and the electrophysiological severity scale in forensic reports

Forensic reports on traumatic peripheral nerve injuries include dysfunction degrees of extremities, which are arranged according to the Turkish Penalty Code. The aim of this study is to discuss the role and importance of electromyography while preparing forensic reports in the cases of traumatic peripheral nerve injuries and the usefulness of scoring systems. A modified global scale, recommended by Mondelli et al., was used to assess the electrophysiological impairment of each peripheral nerve. Forensic reports of 106 patients, reported between 2002 and 2004, were evaluated. Thirty-four percent of the cases were reported as "total loss of function," 41.5% were reported as "functional disability," and there were no dysfunctions in the other cases in forensic reports that were prepared based on Council of Social Insurance Regulations of Health Processes and Guide prepared by the Council of Forensic Medicine and profession associations of forensic medicine. When we rearranged these forensic reports based on the electrophysiological severity scale (ESS), it was clearly found that all of the score 2 cases and 86.7% of the score 3 cases corresponded to "functional disability" and 91.4% of the score 4 cases correspond to "total loss of function." We found a significant correlation between the ESS and functional evaluation in peripheral nerve injury cases. Evaluation of functional disabilities in peripheral nerve injuries with the ESS represents a standardized and objective method used for forensic reports.     

Interpretation of neuropathological lesions: Its limitations in medico-legal experts’ reports

Aggressive or paradoxical behaviour may reflect an organic dementia. The most frequent is Alzheimer's disease, which results from an abnormal structural conformation of tubulin-associated protein (tau) and beta-amyloid protein that, respectively, aggregate in certain neurons as intracellular neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and in the extracellular environment as senile plaques.These lesions progress in the brain tissue according to the stages described by Braak and Braak. Staging of neurofibrillary pathology has proven anatomical and clinical correlation, which can be used in a medico-legal procedure. We report two cases demonstrating discrepancies between anatomical and clinical features, which should encourage medical expert to prudence when interpreting neuropathological reports.